Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) typically uses a laser source to provide additional energy to magnetic media during the data writing process. The laser source may include a submount assembly, which together is referred to as a Chip-On-Submount-Assembly (COSA). The COSA is attached to the back of a conventional magnetic head slider and light energy from a laser diode chip is guided to the air bearing surface through a waveguide to heat the magnetic media.
To ensure that the laser diode output is efficiently coupled to the waveguide on a slider it is desirable to accurately bond the slider to the laser source. Aligning the laser source and the slider to the desired position is time consuming and prone to error. The manufacturing yield for fabricating magnetic devices may be adversely affected due to misalignment of the laser with respect to the slider. Therefore, a need exists for a simplified alignment method that accurately aligns a slider to an illumination unit and that improves manufacturing yield.